Sunday, December 30, 2018

"You Live In A Bubble"

*reads about bigotry on the rise in the news; more hate crimes yesterday–someone is in the hospital this time*

*reads about deaths*

*learns that the so-called alt-right makes up more than half of domestic terrorism yet those who carry these atrocities out are never labeled as such*

*turns on the radio: NPR interviewing members of Trump's cabinet–they dismiss the idea that vouchers will increase "soft segregation"*

*carpools to work with someone who is vocally worried about their kid sharing a bathroom with a trans kid*

*tries to point out that trans folks have assaulted fewer children in bathrooms than cis folks have; gets made fun of for using the word "cis" and told that "cis" is obviously a reverse slur and to shut up if this carpool is wanted*

*carpool goes on to talk about why giving scholarships to Black students is the real racism*

*is the only person who isn't a white guy on the team at work and one of only three in the whole department*

*works in proximity to three misogynists and two racists–plus one person who is both AND is the boss, so best just smile and laugh*

*sits at lunch and listens to loud person at next table explain why southern immigrants are stealing jobs; is asked to stop making a scene for glaring*

*boss goes on "all lives matter" rant on the way back from lunch*

*rant becomes "blue lives matter"*

*back to work–HR has determined that a formal sexual harassment charge is unnecessary; he has been "talked to; the issue is to be dropped*

*is forwarded a "funny" e-mail by family where the "joke" is that the woman is really a guy*

*before leaving work, has to call the IT guy who calls everything that doesn't work the R word and laughs at the very idea of ableism*

*gets "talked to" by boss on the way out the door and told to lighten up and be a team player or maybe this isn't the right fit*

*leaving work, watches a group of children go by calling something they don't want to do "gay"*

*picks up dinner from a restaurant where only conventionally attractive women are servers or hosts*

*drives home called several gendered slurs for missing that a light changed*

*comes home, turns on computer–sees private message from a sock puppet account of a guy accused of rape (regular accounts blocked) saying that it was out of line to believe the accusations, and legal defamation actions will be taken if the whole thing isn't recanted*

*discovers several online communities engaged in "open dialogue," which today is excusing fascism as a legitimate ideology in one community and is a bunch of white guys explaining why there is no racism or sexism anymore and the gender wage gap is a myth in another*

*gets banned from a page for suggesting that there is no comparison between open bigots and those who get angry at open bigotry*

*friend of a friend's screed shows up on the FB Newsfeed (because of a friend's comment on it) wherein feminism is declared fundamentally sexist and the person is going to be a humanist/egalitarian starting by declaring war on the word feminism*

*reads tweet expressing hope of suicide for being against the Breitbart News Network*

*several arguments on several friends' FB walls from everything to abortion access to thought experiments about why a 37-year-old-dating a 16-year-old isn't TECHNICALLY pedophilia*

*libertarian atheist high school friend has posted an article suggesting that marginalized groups are all playing the victim card and have chips on their shoulders; is blocking anyone who pushes back*

*has to give up on a lovely community where like-minded liberals post pictures of pug dogs with silly captions because it has been overwhelmed by trans exclusionary and sex worker exclusionary radical feminists*

*goes to their own wall, their sanctuary of friends and family who support them*

*sees a slur*

*asks friend gently not to use slur––to please edit comment*

*friend insists they didn't mean it THAT way––that it's a perfectly acceptable word the whole world over even though it has splash damage to unintended targets and whole communities have asked for its retirement*

*friend insists that this is over-sensitivity*

*tells friend that on their wall, in their space, in their sanctuary of friends and family who support them, for just this one moment they try to enjoy out of the day, that word is not okay*

About the Author

Chris Brecheen is just this guy who loves to write. He's been doing it for thirty years, and even got a degree in Creative Writing that now covers a hole in his drywall. These days he focuses his pretentious, hackneyed tripe on this blog, which is two teaspoons magical journey, one cup of advice given as satire, a dash of talking cat, a splash of personified ideals, a (very) healthy dollop of pervy candor, eight heaping tablespoons of toeing the knife-edge line between irreverence and blasphemy, diced guest bloggers who live inside his head (and a couple who don't), a sprinkle of words used pretty much with the express intention of keeping prudes offended in perpetuity, regular Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly references, at least one doomsday plot per season, and a slice of pressed milk curd provided by the weird guy who lives on the third floor. Add three or four sprigs of social justice and simmer.

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